1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a self-contained valved package for a fluent commodity, and more particularly, a package with a depression/impression valve in the wall thereof. The invention is most immediately and widely applicable to the collapsible tube art and specifically to packages used for extremely small volumes of fluid.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Hundreds of products are packaged in small volume tubes or flat packages which most commonly are used a single time and as the package is not reuseable, the balance of the product and the package are discarded. Frequently, sample sizes of medicaments, such as, ophthalmic solutions and antibiotic ointments; dyes and pigments; inks; personal products, such as, hair preparations, lotions, creams, perfumes and colognes are packaged in small plastic or foil containers used once and discarded. Waste is inherently present, even encouraged, in such a sampling process.
The promotional value alone of reuseability at no substantial increase in package cost is inestimable.
In the past, various types of tubes and containers for these products have been placed in the market or proposed. While all the containers had discharge openings, most of these orifices are closed with removable cap members. Devices of this character, while having been widely used, have been subject to the difficulty of the loss of the removable cap making it difficult, if not impossible, thereafter to properly cover the discharge orifice. After the loss of the removable cap, certain commodities, notably glue, cement, and toothpaste, deteriorate or harden upon contact with the atmosphere. Such products often then become unusable and the remaining portion is discarded.
Other packages have been marketed having closures which are solely operated by pressure being exerted against the wall or walls of the package. Most popularly such closures include lip-like terminations that are closed when no pressure is exerted against the walls of the package. Such products often have the drawback that a small quantity of product lodges in the discharge termination and holds the lip portions thereof open to the atmosphere leading to the similar conditions as hereinbefore described. Further, with tubes with lip-like openings, accidental or inadvertent squeezing results in unwanted discharge of the product.
As the results of the patentability search described below indicate, a substantial array of dispensing packages and collapsible tube devices are at hand. However, when the prior art is examined with the package of this invention being understood both as to structure and operational aspects afforded by such structure, the disclosed invention appears novel and unobvious.
The search was conducted primarily in Class 222 in which most of the packaging art is classified, and also included Class 401, in which applicators combined with collapsing wall tubes are classified (Cl. 401/152 et seq.). Within Class 222, subclasses describing resilient wall devices, dispensing valve, wall actuation, flow control between fixed plates, miscellaneous outlet shapes and two-position tube tops were among those examined. The following pertinent patents were uncovered:
______________________________________ U.S. Pat. No. Inventor Title ______________________________________ 3,964,504 Daubenberger Check valve et al 3,711,011 Kugler Resealable packaging device 3,610,477 Herzig Automatic closure for containers 3,184,121 Volckening Package with self-siding closure 3,131,836 Van Baarn Closure for tubes and the like 3,063,601 Hertz Self-sealing collapsible tubes 3,012,698 Wiederquist et al Resilient dispensing tube 2,546,709 Abarr Self-closing tube 2,364,307 Mossett Closure for collapsible tubes 2,309 895 Griffith Closure for collapsible tubes ______________________________________
The structures shown in the prior art for packaging closure are either multiple part arrangements where a valve stem or a hinged cover is moved from obstructing flow or wall openings (reminiscent of the old glue bottles) in which a portion of the wall is stressed to provide flow. Of the latter group, the Abarr U.S. Pat. No. 2,546,709 shows a discharge orifice formed by a pair of lips 21 and 22 that are opened by applying pressure to point 13a.
The patent to Herzig, U.S. Pat. No. 3,610,477, is instructive in that it teaches the automatic closure for squeezeable containers comprising a neck having tapered side edges sealed together to form an openable outlet having opposed lips either one or both of which is advantageously provided with an inherent reentrant curve, bow or act so that these lips normally oppose and preferably bear against each other providing a closure, except when manual or the like pressure is applied to the contained material.
Of particular relevance in this are is the package with self-sealing closure patented by Volckening, U.S. Pat. No. 3,184,121, and assigned to Ivers-Lee Company. The patent describes a package of the type comprising at least two flexible layers or sheets of packaging material. Such packages include those formed from metal foil or laminated sheets of cellulose acetate and polyethylene, or suitable synthetic plastic material permanently sealed together in zones forming and bounding between the layers a commodity containing compartment having resilient self-sustaining walls with an elongated discharge passage openable between layers. The package has a discharge passage which shall be openable upon application of pressure exteriorly to the portions of the layers forming the walls of the compartment and shall be automatically closed upon release of such pressure.
Although of interest, none of the above patents reviewed on the prior art search showed the package of the invention, nor, when taken in combination, did the teachings make obvious the package of the invention.